Christy McElynn's blog

NJYC has just been selected as a finalist for the American Prize! We are among only 8 other choirs chosen in the Choral Performance: Youth and High School Chorus Division. Congratulations to Trish and all the Directors, and to our fantastic choristers!

Coro Vivo and Sola Voce did a fantastic job singing the National Anthem before an enthusiastic Madison Square Garden crowd at the Harlem Globetrotter's Game. They even got some close ups on the Jumbotron! Nicely done everyone.

Coro Vivo spent the day singing with 25 boys from 9 different schools in Germantown, PA. The day wrapped up with a concert featuring the Festival Choir and the world-renowned Keystone State Boychoir. It is events like this that motivate boys to keep singing throughout their lives!

Camerata’s holiday performance with the Celtic Tenors at Ocean County College was a true Irish Delight. The boys performed both on their own and with the Tenors – who were extremely impressed with our talent and professionalism. A rousing joint rendition of “The Holy City” even closed out the show. Good on you, Camerata!

NJYC's Coriste had the honor of performing the Star Spangled Banner at Madison Square Garden in December, to kick off the annual Jimmy V. Basketball Classic honoring Jimmy Valvano and the V Foundation for Cancer Research. And what a performance it was! As one of the very experienced radio announcers there told Trish, "That is the way the National Anthem is supposed to be sung!"

NJYC's high school women's ensemble Coriste was selected as a Semi-Finalist in the Youth/High School Choral Performance division of the American Prize! The American Prize is a prestigious national competition for arts organizations, that recognizes and rewards America's finest performing artists, ensembles and composers, based on recorded performances

Finalists will be announced in the next several weeks, For more information about the American Prize, or to follow the results of the competition, please visit their website.

Our Coriste choristers, conducted by our founder and Artistic Director Trish Joyce, did a fantastic job at their performance in Atlantic City. When the concert ended, music educators in the audience were raving about the performance. "This was the most amazing choir I've ever seen!" "These girls have music in their souls - it shows in their faces and their movements." "Their tone and their vowels were perfect." "They were so true to the music - I wish I could conduct a choir like this."

In perhaps the best comment of all, which sums up NJYC's entire mission: "There are only a few moments in your life that are truly musically life-changing. This was one of them."

Terrific news! Six of our Sola Voce choristers have been selected to sing at the ACDA National Convention in Minneapolis this coming March!

Mia Battistella, Allyson Burkitt, Divya Chiplunkar, Zia Sarkis, and Karmina Wall will be part of the ACDA National Children's Honor Choir (a 5th-9th grade treble choir), under the direction of Joan Gregory. And Kayla Miller was selected for the Middle School/Junior High Mixed choir (grades 6-9, male and female) conducted by Lynnel Jenkins.

NJYC's Coriste Ensemble did a beautiful job in their joint concert with the internationally renowned University of Delaware Chorale. The Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Paul Head, Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at UD, made five stops on their fall tour, and we led off the program on October 21st at Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church in West Windsor, NJ. It was thrilling to share the program with such a distinguished college choir. As a special treat, NJYC alum Nicolette Corrado, now a senior Music Education major at UD, conducted Coriste for "Blessing."

Camerata participated in and performed at the annual Brother's Sing On! festival at the University of Connecticut in October. The all day festival, open to male singers of all ages, culminated in a 4 PM finale performance, featuring UConn’s all-male a cappella groups the Conn Men and CDN (Completely Different Note), the UConn Men’s Glee Club, the Men of the UConn Concert Choir, and the Brothers Sing On! Festival Chorus, which included Camerata. It was a great opportunity for the boys, and it was a treat for the audience as well.